The Alternative-Conventional Agriculture Debate: Where Do Agricultural Faculty Stand?1

Abstract In recent years, publicly funded agricultural science at land grant universities (LGUs) has come under increasing criticism by those who argue that LGUs have contributed to an industrial mode of agriculture that is neither ecologically nor socioeconomically sustainable. The views of critics and defenders of modern industrial agriculture reflect two competing perspectives on agriculture—an alternative and a conventional paradigm. Utilizing a 24-item alternative-conventional agriculture paradigm (ACAP) scale, this study analyzes the paradigmatic positions of faculty in the College of Agriculture and Home Economics at Washington State University. Results reveal that the faculty are slightly more conventional than are farmers statewide, slightly less conventional than proponents of conventional agriculture, and far more conventional than known alternative agriculturalists. When looking at particular elements of the agricultural debate, however, the faculty tend to be more conventional than farmers on the socioeconomic elements of the competing paradigms but considerably less conventional on elements dealing with ecological and conservation issues. Women, younger faculty, non-land grant educated faculty, and faculty not raised on farms are somewhat more likely to endorse the alternative agriculture paradigm than are their counterparts. These differences are minor, however, compared to the differences across academic disciplines. Faculty of departments oriented to the social sciences (with the exception of agricultural economics) tend to most strongly endorse the alternative paradigm, while faculty from the more production-oriented departments and agricultural economics are the most conventional. Possible implications of the findings are discussed for the future of publicly-funded agricultural science.     

Endorsement of Agrarian Ideology and Adherence to Agricultural Paradigms1

Abstract Despite the fact that groups of alternative and conventional agriculturalists do not differ in their overall scores on an agrarianism scale, their responses do differ significandy on several of the agrarianism items and on the items related to agrarianism from a scale designed to assess competing agricultural paradigms. This suggests that there are differences in these groups' agrarian ideologies even though their overall scores on the agrarianism scale are nearly identical. Although divergent agricultural groups support agrarian ideals such as family farms and the farm way of life, the way in which these groups conceptualize and would achieve these ideals appear to be different. Consequendy, the relatively generic items typically used to analyze agrarianism fail to capture the differences in the agrarian ideologies of competing agricultural groups. The need to reconceptualize agrarianism so as to make it more meaningful to contemporary agriculture is discussed.     

Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices: Diffusion,Farm Structure,and Profitability1

Abstract This paper employs diffusion and farm-structure variables to explain variations in Montana farmers' adoption of two kinds of sustainable agricultural practices: those involving intensive management and those which require fewer purchased inputs. While perceived profitability was found to be the most important factor affecting adoption of both, the independent variables had different effects on beliefs about net economic returns as well as on adoption of the two practices. Type of farm enterprise played a larger role in adoption of the low-input practices than the management intensive ones; access to information was more important for the latter. Implications for policy are discussed.     

Measuring Adherence to Alternative vs. Conventional Agricultural Paradigms: A Proposed Scale*

Abstract Current debates and conflicts in agriculture appear to reflect the competing perspectives of two increasingly distinct camps of agricultural stakeholders: proponents of “alternative agriculture” and proponents of “conventional agriculture.” Several analysts have argued that members of these two camps hold fundamentally divergent paradigms of agriculture, and thus, literally see the world quite differently. The purpose of this paper is to describe an instrument—the Alternative-Conventional Agriculture Paradigm Scale (or ACAP Scale)—developed to measure the basic beliefs and values assumed to constitute the two competing perspectives in agriculture. Items designed to tap all of the major dimensions identified in the alternative-conventional agriculture debate were included in surveys of known groups of alternative and conventional agriculturalists, as well as in a statewide survey of farmers. The items discriminate significantly between the three samples (with the statewide farmer sample taking the intermediate position), suggesting their validity as measures of the elements of the competing agricultural paradigms. The items also exhibit a high degree of internal consistency, indicating the appropriateness of combining them into a single instrument to measure adherence to alternative versus conventional agriculture. As expected, the known groups provide more consistent responses than do the statewide sample of farmers, presumably reflecting the greater ideological coherence of social movement and interest group members. However, the alternative agriculturalists are far more consistent than are the conventional agriculturalists, and potential explanations for this finding are drawn from recent work on social movements.     

Alternative and Conventional Agricultural Paradigms: Evidence From Farming in Southwest Saskatchewan*

Abstract Agricultural analysts have suggested that the emergence of an alternative agriculture system represents more than changes in practices; it is also thought to represent a shift in environmental beliefs, values, attitudes, and norms. This means that conventional and alternative systems of agriculture represent distinct paradigms which are informed by two contradictory worldviews. Insofar as this claim is correct, it is possible to delineate, target, and promote one paradigm, depending on the system of agriculture that policy makers wish to encourage. In this paper we seek to clarify the practical application of the two agricultural paradigms by examining the practices, beliefs, values, norms, and attitudes of farmers in southwest Saskatchewan, part of the semi‐arid section of the North American Great Plains. Findings support the view that different farming systems correspond to different worldviews. Strong confidence in the market, however, is not limited to conventional farmers, as suggested by the literature.     

Social and Ecological Dimensions of the Alternative‐Conventional Agricultural Paradigm Scale

Abstract This paper is an empirical test of the dimensionality and predictive value of the alternative‐conventional agricultural paradigm (ACAP) scale developed by Beus and Dunlap. While recognizing that this scale may be appropriate and useful in studies of the agricultural intelligentsia (agricultural scientists, farm policy makers, organization leaders, and farm people actively following and participating in policy deliberations), our data suggest several shortcomings of this scale among a more general sample of farm operators. Initially, the scale is not satisfactorily unidimensional; instead, relatively clear‐cut environmental and family‐farmist dimensions emerged in our analysis of farmer attitudes. Separate environmental and family‐farmist subscales performed better than an omnibus (or paradigmatic) scale in predicting farm operator behaviors.     

Response to Pennsylvania's Agricultural Preservation Programs1

Abstract Agriculture is the leading industry in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. At the same time, encroaching development has pressured prime agricultural land to change uses, a change usually considered irreversible. Some regions of Pennsylvania have used zoning to control and plan for the development of agricultural land, but these decisions have not always been agreed on. In response to conflicts over zoning and calls for more effective restrictions of development of prime agricultural soils, the state government implemented agricultural preservation programs designed to ensure the future viability of Pennsylvania's agriculture. While response has been reported as favorable, most reviews relied on voters' support of a state referendum to fund agricultural preservation programs. Few have examined local responses to the implementation of these programs. This paper explores local community responses to agricultural preservation and the state's programs in three regions of Pennsylvania which differ in levels of urban presence and pressure. Using secondary sources, qualitative data, and general population surveys, this analysis provides implications about strategies of agricultural preservation in a state which leads in such efforts.     

The Passion Paradigm: Professional Adherence to and Consequences of the Ideology of “Do What You Love”

If changes to the material structures of work have ushered us into a “new economy,” cultural scholars assume that there must also be changes to ideological structures of work. Extant scholarship on precarious professionals and on the role of emotions in 21^st‐century work find that passion may be an important cultural component of white‐collar work in the new economy. Using data from engineers, nurses, and graphic designers who work in either less precarious or more precarious contexts, this paper contributes the first emic definition of work passion as the experiences of attraction, enjoyment, motivation, and perseverance. Because I find overwhelming adherence and conceptual consistency among professionals in my sample, I argue that the pursuit of work passion constitutes a coherent ideology of work, which I call the passion paradigm. I argue that the passion paradigm is compatible with and protects structures of work in the new economy because its logic of hyper individualism motivates workers to work hard and work well as a practice of self‐care, shifting the locus of critique further away from institutions and more toward the self. Adherence to and institutionalization of the passion paradigm may have myriad consequences, opening up broad areas of future research.     

Finding Farms: Comparing Indicators of Farming Dependence and Agricultural Importance in the United States

Abstract Many scholars have commented on the changing significance of farming for understanding the dynamics of social and economic change in contemporary rural America. Quantitative analyses of relationships between farming, local socioeconomic conditions, demographic trends, and policy have often relied on an indicator of “farm‐dependent” (FD) counties developed by the USDA Economic Research Service. In this article, we argue that measures of economic dependency imperfectly identify the places in the United States where farming is significant, and can paint an incomplete picture of the contemporary geographic distribution and structure of agriculture in the United States. We propose an alternative categorical indicator—agricultural importance (AI)—that provides a better direct measure of the relative size and intensity of farming across diverse U.S. counties. We compare the characteristics of FD and AI counties along a set of dimensions and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each typology.     

Adherence to Mediterranean diet and risk of prostate cancer

In Europe, countries following the traditional Mediterranean Diet (MeDi), particularly Southern European countries, have lower prostate cancer (PCa) incidence and mortality compared to other European regions. In the present study, we investigated the association between the MeDi and the relative risk of PCa and tumor aggressiveness in a Spanish population. Among individual score components, it has been found that subjects with PCa were less likely to consume olive oil as the main culinary fat, vegetables, fruits and fish than those without. However, these differences were not statistically significative. A high intake of fruit, vegetables and cooked tomato sauce Mediterranean style (sofrito) was related to less PCa aggressiveness. Results showed that there are no differences in the score of adherence to the Mediterranean dietary patterns between cases and controls, with mean values of 8.37?±?1.80 and 8.25?±?2.48, respectively. However, MeDi was associated with lower PCa agressiveness according to Gleason score. Hence, relations between Mediterranean dietary patterns and PCa are still inconclusive and merit further investigations. Further large-scale studies are required to clarify the effect of MeDi on prostate health, in order to establish the role of this diet in the prevention of PCa.     

Culture and Agricultural Land Tenure1

The traces left by land transactions in legal records, maps, and family-farm size corroborate oral accounts and observations gathered during field studies among seven Illinois farming communities dominated by German and Yankee ethnic groups. Cultural factors are demonstrated to shape intergenerational land transmission practices, leading to ethnically distinctive patterns of land tenure, visible in the size of farms, persistence in farming, fragmentation of holdings, and amount of acreage owned or rented. Three family-land issues, synthesized from the field studies, are posited as pivotal to how local land tenure systems develop: who owns “family”-owned land, whether the group or individual welfare is of highest priority, and the value placed on connections between the household and community. As families enact land transmission, those who control it aim to reproduce customary asymmetric relations of gender, generation, and status that maintain the cultural system in its special configuration.     

Factors Affecting Older Women's Adherence to Medication and Treatment

Over the past 25 years, there has been a growing interest in why many patients do not take prescribed medications or fail to follow medical advice. As many as 50% of all patients fail to adhere adequately to therapeutic advice or engage in inappropriate use of prescribed medications. Additionally, there has been a struggle over how best to describe this variance between what medical practitioners recommend and what patients actually do. This article examines factors thought to affect women's adherence to medication and treatment regimens. Literature on age, comorbid conditions, socioeconomic factors, environmental factors, and perceived susceptibility for an illness is reviewed as are individual psychological idiosyncratic dynamics that may influence health care behaviors.     

Labor and Production Barriers to the Reduction of Agricultural Chemical Inputs1

Abstract Advocates of sustainable agriculture consider farmer flexibility and innovativeness a key element in efforts to develop farm practices that reduce chemical inputs. In contrast to labor displacing technologies, farming with reduced chemical inputs may increase labor demands. Consequently, concerns about labor supply may affect farmer adaptability in reducing chemical inputs. This research addresses two specific questions. First, how concerned are farmers about the availability of labor needed to reduce chemical inputs? Second, do farmers view production problems as insurmountable without chemicals because of labor constraints? The majority of farmers surveyed agree that it is difficult to reduce chemical inputs because additional labor is hard to find, and their own labor inputs would have to increase. Results of OLS regression analysis show that whether the farmer hires workers affects the relationship between perceived labor and production barriers. Labor supply is less elastic for farmers who hire no labor, and they have less access to social networks that would provide them with sources of the additional workers needed if chemical inputs were reduced. The significance of these results for the development of sources of information that enhance farmer adaptability is discussed.     

Child Sexual Abuse Evaluations: Adherence to Recommendations

ABSTRACT

Sixty-eight parents of children with alleged child sexual abuse (CSA) were surveyed 4 months after visiting an interdisciplinary CSA evaluation clinic in order to examine the extent to which recommendations were recalled and implemented. Of those parents for whom specific recommendations were provided, 9% recalled recommendations for medical follow-up, 79% recalled recommendations for child therapy, and 43% recalled recommendations for parental therapy. Families were more likely to receive and adhere to recommendations when there were behavioral problems and a strong indication of CSA. To improve communication with families, the reasons for recommendations must be clearly conveyed, and possible barriers to implementation should be anticipated and addressed. In addition, recommendations need to be realistic, and professionals need to facilitate the implementation of their treatment plan.     

Agricultural Journalists' Assessments of Print Coverage of Agricultural News1

Abstract Critics of agricultural news claim farm media and mass media coverage of agriculture is systematically distorted, a condition that could seriously affect the agricultural information system. A national survey used agricultural journalists as expert judges to assess how well three types of print journalists cover agricultural news. Their assessments indicated that mass media reporters who do not regularly cover agricultural news tend to write agriculture stories that are superficial and stereotyped but not biased toward agricultural interests. Farm magazine writers' stories are not superficial or stereotyped, but writers are uncritical of agriculture, biased toward agroindustry, and overlook important social and environmental issues. Newspaper farm beat reporters are closer to farm magazine writers in not trivializing agriculture and closer to general newspaper reporters in avoiding close ties with industry. Both farmers and public thus receive biased and fragmented reporting that may polarize their views on current agricultural issues. Even if reporters are aware of critical shortcomings in their coverage, improvement may require reduction in structural constraints on story choice.     

Health,Health Insurance,and Decision to Exit from Farming

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of health and health insurance on farmers’ exit decision-making process. Using data from 2000 to 2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we tested the following three hypotheses: (1) Health condition affects farmers’ exit decision; (2) Having health insurance discourages farmers from exiting; (3) Obtaining health insurance helps farmers with physical health problems to continue farming. Empirical results indicated that having health insurance has a positive effect on encouraging farmers to continue farming regardless of health condition. The study results also suggested that farmer’s health condition and access to health insurance have noticeably larger marginal impacts on farmer’ exit decision than income and other commonly-considered socio-economic and demographic variables.     

Best Practices to Reduce Migration Pressures

Are there best practices to foster economic development, reduce population growth, and protect the environment in source countries of unauthorized migration, in a manner that reduces emigration pressures and redirects migration towards legal channels? This paper outlines cooperative actions that can be undertaken by both source and receiving countries to better manage the movements of people over national borders. There are two broad approaches to foster wanted migration and to reduce unwanted migration. First, maximize migration’s payoffs by ensuring that the 3 Rs of recruitment, remittances, and returns foster economic and job growth in emigration areas. Second, make emigration unnecessary by adapting trade, investment and aid policies, and programmes that accelerate economic development and thus make it unnecessary for people to emigrate for jobs and wages. Most of the changes needed for stay–at–home development must occur in emigration areas, but immigration areas can cooperate in the management of immigration, guest workers, and students, as well as in promoting freer trade and investment, and in targeting aid funds. In a globalizing world, selective immigration policies may have important development impacts, as with immigration country policies toward students, and workers in particular occupations, such as nurses and computer programmers, as well as with mutual recognition of occupational licenses and professional credentials. Trade policies affecting migration are also important, such as trade in services and laws regulating contracts between firms in different countries that allow the entry of lower wage workers as part of the contract. opening channels for legal migration can deter irregular migration.     

Family Work Trends and Practices:1971 to 1991

Families are allocating their time in an increasingly market-oriented fashion, with a decreasing proportion of labor hours being devoted to unpaid work. This article analyzes two aspects of the changing allocation of time. First, using longitudinal data from 1971 to 1991, the nature of the changes in how the families have changed their allocation of time between market and non-market alternatives is examined. Next, how family types have changed their allocations over the same period are examined. The Panel Study of Income Dynamics is used for this analysis.Results of this research indicate that the proportion of time spent on household labor among men has increased over individual men's life cycles and between cross-sectional cohorts. However, women continue to devote more hours to household labor than men. The number of hours women spend in the labor force are increasing, but the number of hours women spend in the labor force is still less than the number of hours men spend in the labor force. While the families in the longitudinal analysis have been able to maintain fairly stable work and income patterns, the cross-sectional data indicate that families need to devote an increasing number of hours to the labor market to maintain economic stability.